Contents

Biology

Giants generally grow between ten[3] to fourteen feet tall.[2] They are capable of great feats of strength such as wrenching the bars of an iron gate apart.[4] They are covered by a shaggy pelt of fur that is thicker below their waists than above. The fur of older giants becomes grey and streaked with white. Their heads are thrust forward from their shoulder blades. They have squashed-in faces with square teeth and tiny eyes amidst folds of horny flesh. Their eyesight is poor and they snuffle constantly, smelling as much as they see.[5]

Giants have sloped chests, and their lower torsos are about half again as wide as their upper torsos. Their arms hang lower than a man's, while their legs are shorter than their arms, ending in splayed and horny feet that need no shoes even in the coldest weather.[5] According to Osha, female giants look similar to males, both being bearded.[3]

Culture

According to the stories of Old Nan, a servant at Winterfell, giants are outsized men who live in enormous castles, wield large swords, and wear huge boots.[5] Nan told the children of Lord Eddard Stark that wildlings consort with giants and ghouls, [6] and she also told the children about a man who escaped the castle of evil giants only to fall victim to Others.[7] Men believe that giants eat human flesh, and Nan claims that giants mix blood into their porridge and eat bulls whole.[8]

While hostile to men, giants are a shy folk[9] who use little technology. They wield huge clubs that are often no more than logs, though some tie boulders to the end to make crude mauls or use huge stone axes.[4] Giants ride mammoths as steeds[5] and are protective of the animals.[10][11] Giants speak the Old Tongue of the First Men,[12] referring to children of the forest as woh dak nag gran, or squirrel people.[13] Giants do not have kings, but Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg is considered their greatest living warrior.[5] In contrast to stories of bloodthirsty giants, Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun is a vegetarian.[8]

Songs of the free folk tell that giants were at one time more plentiful, but they were hunted by men and driven from their stone halls. Now unable to withstand the Others,[40] the several hundred remaining giants have joined the host of Mance Rayder became King-Beyond-the-Wall.[5] The Lord of Bones, a leader of the free folk, wears the broken skull of a giant as his helm.[41]Tormund Giantsbane is said to have slain a giant.[5]

Bran: Maester Luwin says there are no more giants. He says they're all dead, like the children of the forest. All that's left of them are old bones in the earth that men turn up with plows from time to time.

Perhaps magic was once a mighty force in the world, but no longer. What little remains is no more than the wisp of smoke that lingers in the air after a great fire has burned out, and even that is fading. Valyria was the last ember, and Valyria is gone. The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore.[51]

Noye and his men had been waiting within, behind a gate of heavy iron bars like the two Pyp had just unlocked. The two crossbows had gotten off a dozen quarrels as the giant struggled toward them. Then the spearmen must have come to the fore, stabbing through the bars. Still the giant found the strength to reach through, twist the head off Spotted Pate, seize the iron gate, and wrench the bars apart. Links of broken chain lay strewn across the floor. One giant. All this was the work of one giant.[4]